Soap Box: What have we here?

by Larry Schuster

May 16,2008

Last month my rambling ended with a question. I wondered whether the narcotic advocates of smart growth would reject the rezoning request of the McAlester Trust for a long-term acute care facility at the corner of Alfred Street and Old Highway 63.

The rezoning application was narrowly drawn to allow only this specific use. Certainly a different use may occur in the future but only via the intense process of public scrutiny. And that process in this community is real.
Council members Barbara Hoppe and, in particular, Karl Skala were nearly incensed that their counterparts would even consider approval of a rezoning request over the objections of neighbors. Further, both expressed the socialist notion of limited property rights rather than the freedom to pursue the highest and best use for any particular parcel of property. Adding insult to injury, the affirmative vote for this application even rose to the level necessary to overcome a protest petition, if one could have been legally filed by the opponents.

Hence lies the "brokenness" of the rezoning process echoed by council members following the refusal to allow a new car dealership in the Crosscreek commercial venture at the eastern terminus of Stadium Boulevard. In the case of the Crosscreek application, objective standards were not used by the council to evaluate the request to amend the commercial development plan, or C-P Plan. Emotion was the order of the day.

Emotions still ran high on the evening Landmark Hospital's proposal was considered. Still, cool heads prevailed. Mayor Darwin Hindman, one of our most congenial citizens, seriously considered the Country Club Estates neighborhood concerns but remained unable to find a reasonable position on which to base rejection of the proposal. Even newly elected council member Paul Sturtz, who campaigned on a smart growth platform, stated that "the area was ripe for development." Not only did his analysis conclude this, but he understood that single-family housing on the former U. S. highway was surely not a practical use of the property. Jerry Wade demonstrated strength of character with similar conclusions, as painful as they were for the totalitarian reign of neighborhood associations. Even the mild-mannered Chris Janku could not find enough reason to reject the request for rezoning. All this combined to make what's normally Laura Nauser's evening of isolation a love fest. This public hearing gave folks the opportunity to differentiate between the ideal and reality. This skill is what separates a leader from an activist.

And it is exactly this skill that is necessary to move our community into the next era of history, an era of life science research, development and discovery along with education and information technology.

We have suffered from rising housing costs and declining wages over the past several years as we have attended to amenities. It is now time to tend to the basic necessities of life. As our retail prowess has grown, our skilled job opportunities have declined. Good jobs, not subsistence-level jobs, go hand in hand with stable economies. Not one welfare recipient or minimum-wage worker gives a wit about extensive park systems, walking trails, pedways or any other amenity that does not ascribe to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. They require food, shelter and security for themselves and, above all else, their families. All loving parents yearn to give their offspring a life better than their own. This requires that the playing field be as fair as humanly possible, that no manmade barriers impede that "pursuit of happiness."

Here we must analyze each opportunity not on the basis of fear that emotes from the uncertainty of change but on the rationality of human reasoning tempered with the learning of education and experience. At the root of all should be a dedication to freedom, liberty and, again, the pursuit of happiness within all reasonable bounds.

Larry Schuster is a former city councilman and political observer.